Of Lip Gloss and Plaid Skirts
by Alysskea
Summary: Blair, a rather sassy and outspoken lesbian and Karla, who despite her best efforts is still a little uncomfortable in her own skin have both moved to Crawford Country Day in the hope of acceptance and a better life. They meet on a staircase, fluffiness
1. Chapter 1

Blair was bored. More than usual, even. She focussed hard on her hand mirror as she spread soft pink gloss over her lips, her feet resting on top of the empty chair beside her. This was _painfully_ boring, to the extent that she didn't know what class she was in or how she got there. It was positively Inception style. She was supposed to be singing later, something about an impromptu performance of some kind but singing did not carry the meaning it once had. It's not as if she was able to sing the words _to_ anyone, so it wasn't significant anymore, nor was it particularly enjoyable. She hadn't fitted in as well as she had hoped at Crawford. It was better than her old school in the sense that people didn't laugh at her anymore. She didn't feel like a target anymore as such, but she still felt out of place in the world. You see, there's something you've got to understand here- Blair Anderson was a raging lesbian. Admittedly, she was now a raging lesbian in an all girls school- a major bonus, you understand, but that didn't change the fact that she was different and being different was still a crime in this world.

Make no mistake, Blair would never admit that this phases her. She would tell you that she shouldn't, wouldn't and never will care before tossing her curls behind her and turning away from you. It was the loneliness that got to her, really. If people thought you were odd in some way, they were far less inclined to want to be close to you. It wasn't their fault, not really, just general human nature expressing itself through a school full of teenage girls, all of whom thoroughly disapproved of Blair because she wore her socks too low, her hair too long and a superior smirk on her face at all times. From all this, you probably would describe Blair as unpopular- but you'd be wrong. She runs the school! People _disapprove_ of her, that doesn't mean they dislike her. She has a voice like an angel and the face to match. She has curves in all the right places, does everything with impeccable grace and (although she has no interest whatsoever) has the entire heterosexual student body of Dalton Academy at her feet. Girls can be superficial as a community and just those things earn Blair a significant amount of respect, let me tell you.

Putting on lip gloss on a spiral staircase is hard enough without someone trying to talk to you, Blair thought on hearing the quiet voice as she reached the bottom of the stairs. A tall, brown haired girl was standing on the stairs with a confused look on her face. It might have been because she was out of uniform, but there was no denying that this girl was absolutely _gorgeous_. She had long light brown hair that framed her face perfectly, there was an adorable sprinkling of freckles across her nose and she had these blue-green eyes that you couldn't ignore if you tried. Although she looked a little out of place, Blair couldn't help but mentally compliment her outfit, she was dressed flawlessly.

"I'm new here," the girl said, flicking her hair out her eyes with one hand and gently shaking Blair's hand with the other. "I'm Karla."

Blair felt slightly dazed, but fluttered her eyelashes as per usual, grinned and replied "I'm Blair." She looked couldn't resist looking the girl up and down a bit before letting her fingers slide away. "Listen, are you lost? Because I'm supposed to be performing around 2 minutes ago." Karla didn't reply, giving her an annoying confused look instead and Blair had been wanted to hold her hand again anyway, so she took it again and winked. "You can watch. Come on, I know a shortcut."

The performance was better than it usually was. The Chickadees were on great form, Blair was pitch perfect, of course, and she was able to finally have something to focus on, something to sing to. Karla had a huge smile spread across her face the entire time and was swaying along in a fashion which could only be described as mesmerising. Blair smirked to herself as she recalled that just a few minutes ago they'd been holding hands and it had been really good. It was probably kind of pathetic to be this happy about holding hands with someone when the other, _straighter _girls she knew were up to far more, but right now she really couldn't care less. In Blair's mind, it'd been a fairytale moment. There was no way she was letting this girl get away from her, even if they were just going to be friends. What with all her troubles having seemed to be momentarily trivialised, there was only one question in Blair's mind. Is she, or isn't she?

Blair didn't know this, she was exactly the observant type, but this was the most liberated Karla had felt in months. There were a few things she had learnt in her first ten minutes of being inside the walls of Crawford:

One: Crawford had a uniform, oops.

Two: People actually come to show choir events voluntarily.

Three: Holding hands with other girls is even nicer than she'd anticipated and she planned to do it again.

Blair was stunning, Karla thought to herself. The kind of stunning you only though existed in fashion magazines and bad chick flicks with those big, inviting brown eyes and darkened skin and luscious curls. Well, they were definitely something Karla could get used to.

Karla felt bad for coming here to 'spy' as soon as she had set foot in the place. The truth was she was angry. There, she'd said it. She was angry at the teachers for treating her like she didn't matter, angry at the bitchy comments the other girls said about her, and the disgusting looks that the boys gave her now that they all knew who, or what, she was. Karla wasn't ashamed that she liked girls, she always had- it was just how she was. It hadn't been until she had reached middle school that it had even occurred to her that it was in some way abnormal. After all, she heard her male friends go on about how hot certain girls were all the time, why shouldn't she be allowed to do it? Well, apparently she shouldn't. Apparently it was 'wrong', so wrong in fact that it meant the other kids were allowed to bully her about it and the teachers didn't want to act on it. It wasn't even as if they'd grown out of it, it seemed to be getting progressively worse as she got older. Karla liked to put up a confident front, but she wasn't all that sure of herself. She was shy sometimes, and awkward, uneasy. On stage she can rock your world, but down here in normal life things seemed a lot harder and people judged you without knowing you and treated you accordingly. Karla _hated_ that.

But Blair was smiling at her from across the room and Karla was getting less upset by the second. She felt a fluttering feeling in her chest which made her feel uncomfortable and yet content. For goodness sake, she had only just met this girl! Blair was elegant, attractive and most likely straight- there was no need to be getting ahead of herself here. But that look in the dark haired girl's eyes, the look Karla was receiving right now, was a look of unmistakeable flirtation that even Karla couldn't fail to notice. Well, she smiled to herself, two could play at this game.


	2. Chapter 2

The two girls locked eyes throughout that whole performance and, for some reason, it hadn't even been that awkward at the time. Blair sauntered over to the 'new girl' with her best smile and nudged her a bit with her shoulder.

"So?" She asked, knowing that even if she'd been terrible there was a compliment coming her way.

Karla beamed in a way that was hopelessly attractive, almost enough to throw of Blair's guard. "Amazing," she said, and the two girls smiled at each other in a way that would seem to an outsider as crazy. To them, of course, it was just happy. They'd found each other. What do I mean by that? Well, once they've finished staring into each other's eyes you're going to have to ask them.

"Come," Blair started to walk down a hallway leaving the other girl to scurry behind in her heels. Karla was led to what was supposed to be a cafeteria, but looked more like a fancy hotel lounge. She sat down at a polished wooden table and Blair shoved a latte at her which she accepted gracefully. It was probably a good thing that the girls had something to do with their hands, because the awkward could only be put at bay for so long. They had only just met each other, of course, and although they seemed to have momentarily forgotten it, they didn't actually know each other. Blair's brown eyes glared over the lid of her coffee cup, making her look somewhat enigmatic.

"Well, then." She grinned. "Karla, what the hell are you doing here?"

The brown haired girl looked down in shame, a blush spreading over her pale skin. "I'm not a spy!" Her voice was overly high pitched from defensiveness but she hoped it didn't show. Blair gave her another suggestive smile; one of many Karla seemed to have received since their meeting.

"I never said you were."

Karla smiled meekly, trying to find out without asking whether she was going to be beaten up by a group of angry school girls in plaid skirts. "Right, well… I'm not," she mumbled, almost inaudibly as she turned hot under Blair's piercing eyes which had an expectant look in them.

"Well, now we've cleared that up, how about you answer my question. What are you dong here?"

There was a long silence in which Karla refused to meet her eye and Blair started to wonder if this girl was a generic lost puppy when she shrugged and answered "I don't know."

"Felt like a walk did you?" Blair asked in a sarcastic, if slightly confused, tone. She hadn't meant to sound intimidating, but of course had anyway.

Karla sighed. "Actually yes, that is almost the whole reason. I'm just a bit sick of where I live at the moment- the school and the people and stuff. People expect stuff that I can't give."

Blair appeared to have become particularly fascinated by a cuticle on her left hand but managed to murmur "I know what that's like."

Something you've got to understand about life, if you haven't figured it out already, is that sometimes things happen for no particular reason. Sometimes you'll find yourself in the most unlikely place and you'll realise that you have no idea how you could've ended up there. Well that's what happened to Karla. Not only had she ended up in a strange place with a strange girl but she had opened up to said girl without having opened up to anyone before in her life. It was probably purely psychological, she would later think to herself. She had never had anyone to talk to and here was someone willing to listen and so naturally she told her what she'd been keeping inside her. You could say that that was the day Karla broke.

There has never been anything special about Karla, that's something else you have to know. She's just a normal teenage girl. Slightly on the scruffy side, a straight up B grade student who has a few friends who show little interest in her and don't really care all that much. But everyone has a breaking point, even normal and unremarkable girls like Karla. When you've been holding so much emotion in for so long there comes a time when you have to tell someone. That, Karla thinks, is why she is sitting her with tears streaming down her face (taking copious amounts of mascara with them, no doubt) talking to a girl she barely knows. Blair is listening to her so hard that you can almost hear her doing it and covering Karla's pale hands with her own.

This being life and all, and life being complicated as hell, you wouldn't have thought that things would get better after that- but they did. You may go and have your own debate about whether love at first sight exists; I'm certainly not saying it does. But these girls knew that there was something between them, it's something you are able to sense. Even animals can do it; two birds may meet some day and nest together for the rest of their lives. Well, this wasn't nearly as romantic as that- but it was certainly a start.

It takes Karla 5 weeks to transfer to Crawford. She was surprised by how hard it was to leave her old school, not because she liked it but because she knew it. She'd been going there for what felt like all her life and she knew it like the back of her hand. Probably better, actually, because you don't spend that much time looking at the back of your hand and it doesn't play that much big a part in your life. But I'm going off track, the point is that it's Monday morning and Karla is dressed in that dismal Crawford uniform that has been in her closet for the last week looking at her threateningly, like it was about to walk out and lecture her about all the things she was doing wrong. She wants to do this, though, she reminds herself. She needs to do this. She jumps out of her skin when she feels a soft hand on her shoulder and there's Blair looking bright and awake and lively like she wasn't up until 5 in the morning on the phone trying to get Karla's heart rate down to a medically acceptable level. She grins widely and Karla wonders if it could really be her that is causing that smile.

"Hey, stranger!" Blair's arms are circling round her shoulders and suffocating her before she can say reply and Karla smirks to herself. This isn't that bad. Contrary to what it looks like, these girls aren't dating- not at all. Both of them _know_ about the other of course, I mean there are signs and signals and Karla's breakdown on the day they met left nothing to the imagination. But they aren't dating because it doesn't work like that. Life is awkward and complicated and you have to linger for a while before you can find the courage to do things like that, especially if you're inexperienced like Karla or vaguely misanthropic like Blair. But they are at peace with each other and they have been since the day they met. They walk to Spanish class together and sit next to each other at the back like it's kindergarten again. Neither girl learns any Spanish that day, and at some point in the middle Blair's hand is resting softly on Karla's knee, making her blush far more than she knew knees could. But she's comfortable with it, and she's comfortable with Blair and she's even a little bit comfortable with herself so she just covers the girls hand with her own and smiles to herself, staring at nothing at all.

_****__yo amo__  
__tú amas__  
__él ama__  
__nosotros amamos__  
__vosotros amáis__  
__ellos aman_


	3. Chapter 3

Karla's personality is like a room in a wallpaper brochure. Neat, orderly neutral and generally not very opinionated. There's nothing particularly controversial about Karla whatsoever, apart from the fact that she is a little different and has a tendency to sink into the background. So you can imagine her surprise and perhaps a slight disapproval when Blair is suddenly dragging her round school at her side, expecting Karla to uphold the same fearless reputation as she does. But Karla is not a fearless person, though she may have been once. She has had too many degrading comments thrown at her to feel that she can say what she wants and be who she is. She hasn't been treated like a normal person in a long time, and it's Blair that's making her realise this. Other girls never wanted to talk at her before or hold her hand or hug her, they just used to keep their distance. It wasn't that she didn't like this, but it was difficult for Karla to trust that things could stay this way, because they had never been this way in the past and, although she didn't realise this, Karla didn't believe that she deserved to be treated normally anymore. She had promised herself that she would never let the others get to her, but over the years they had. And now she was scared, even of Blair- who was the sweetest girl she'd ever met. It's difficult not to let people get to you, even when you are strong minded. They want to get to you, that's why, and they won't stop until they do.

But Karla knew almost as soon as they met that Blair wasn't about to take no for an answer. Even after she'd been told everything- about the other girls ganging up on her and the boys generally treating her like an object, Blair didn't seem much effected at all and decided she was going to fix it in her own way. So Karla finds herself being at the centre of a world she hadn't known existed. The girls spend every second they could together. Most of the school day was spent at the back of classes, whispering to each other and passing notes, Karla began to build a collection of paper aeroplanes in the corner of her room on which Blair had written her messages and drawn pointless pictures. She liked it this way. It was terrifyingly different, sometimes almost too terrifying, but she liked it anyway because different was what she had been searching for in the first place.

Not a lot of people know that Karla can sing. In school the girl barely even spoke, let alone belted out a tune. But she did it alone in her room sometimes, on a battered old keyboard that sounded tinny if you turned it up too loud. But when she is singing it feels like sometimes it might actually possible to… break out of her skin somehow. Her body feels like a trap sometimes, because she was born into it without choosing it. None of this reality was her choice. But sometimes when she's singing, Karla is able to separate mind and body somewhat, and her mind is so much freer than her body. It's able to fly away.

So it's easy for her to walk into the choir rehearsal room one day (that's the choir she hasn't even dared audition for yet) and sit at the grand piano (a significant step up!) and start to play with her soft fingers. She isn't scared to open her mouth at that moment and start to sing.

_I could show you the world,_

_Shining, shimmering splendid,_

_Tell me princess,_

_Now when did you last,_

_Let your heart decide?_

You may feel as though it'd be ridiculous for Blair to outside listening at this point, mightn't you? But I'm afraid that is exactly what's happening. Before Karla, Blair was used to being on her own, but now she is started to develop the need for company that she always despised in other people. So it isn't happy coincidence that she sees Karla walk into that choir room- Blair's been looking for her all day. It doesn't feel right somehow when they aren't together. Blair wasn't simply strolling past when she heard that voice drifting out through the corridors (although she will say later that she was), she was actually following Karla around like she did most of the time. She won't admit to any of this, at least not for a very long time.

Karla is seeing things differently now, and she is well aware of it. Loneliness is not just an emotion; it's a state of mind. But now she isn't lonely anymore she barely knows what to do with herself. Now she feels lost, but in a good way. Because she isn't alone anymore, and it's impossible to describe how good that feels after constantly being told that you are less than good enough.

_A whole new world, _

_A new fantastic point of view,_

_No one to tell us no or where to go,_

_Or say we're only dreaming._

That voice is beautiful; you'd expect it to be given how often Karla practises alone in her room. But now that another girl can hear it it seems better somehow, worth more now that's it's precious to someone other than herself.

_A whole new world,_

_That's where we'll be,_

_A thrilling chase, _

_A wondrous place,_

_For you and me._


	4. Chapter 4

Karla sat on her own by the piano for a while, wondering if she really was about to enter a better world. It could all just be an illusion, but things did seem better lately, a lot better. She didn't feel so alone anymore, or so lost. There was an air of loneliness where she was sitting right now, but not something she had to dwell on, she still the echo of the piano to keep her company anyway.

"Nice."

Karla nearly fell of her piano stool as her silent haven was broken by a voice and the sound of school shoes tapping on wood.

"Ff… Jesus, Blair!" she rose her eyebrows "You could give me some warning, you know." Blair felt bad for a moment

"I'm sorry," she laughed a little before looking serious again. "That was good though; beautiful, mesmerising actually. Well worth a good stalking, I'd say." Karla looked at her questioningly, a slight sinking feel in her chest. Karla still held in her heart a crippling phobia of being judged, something which she might never shake.

"You've been here-"

"All this time!" Blair chirped. "But seriously, that was amazing. Like… I can't believe I've never heard you do that before." There was a lot more she could say, but forming sentences from what she was feeling right now didn't seem like the best idea- she'd only say something wrong after all.

"I… Guess you never asked." Karla told her, not bringing up the fact that there was no way she would've ever agreed to let Blair hear her sing knowingly. There was no particular reason for this she could think of it was just awkward. Awkward and embarrassing and just worrying in a way that had made her feel panicky before, and slightly nauseous at present. "I don't know… I get nervous sometimes. It's not that people will think I'm bad or anything but I guess… I guess I feel like they'd judge me anyway. They'd find something, you know?"

Blair smiled a little, of course she knew. "Wise, if a little cynical." She moved closer, resting an elbow on the piano. "But you should rethink it, in my opinion. I want everyone to hear what I heard. They don't deserve it, but we should give it to them anyway. You're really good, K. Please don't hide it away anymore." She had a sort of pleading look in her eyes that made Karla feel as though it was impossible to deny her.

Karla had performed in her old school before, but no one had ever taken much notice of her. She spent every day wishing they would and she'd been waiting for someone to look at the way Blair did when they heard her sing. No one ever had, and she had taken that to mean that she should confine her talents to her bedroom. It wasn't that anyone ever told her outright that she wasn't good enough, but she had a tendency to sink into the background and her singing was no exception. Like in most instances, people showed little interest and didn't listen.

"You really think so? People never… I mean no one ever really said any of that before."

Blair looked around for somewhere to sit in the large room and at some point seemed to decide that the edge of Karla's lap was the best place. She sat and placed a hand on the other girl's shoulder, grinning. "I really think so."

Neither girl knew what had happened when they started to kiss. The next thing Karla knew, she had foreign hands running through her hair and the taste of apple-berry lip gloss on her tongue. Blair considered regretting the current situation, but decided to do it later. Karla's lip was soft on hers and she was allowing her tongue to tease at her own. It was… nice. Like sighing, or running late at night along a river.

It difficult to describe what the girls were feeling at that moment, because it wasn't just a kind of happiness. When two people who have spent their lives being lonely feel loved for the first time there's a sort of elevated version of relief that goes through you. But it's strange, unfamiliar. Not scary, but exhilarating like driving a car for the first time or the first time you ever walk to school by yourself. It's a step, a step in your lifetime that you knew was coming but never really expected. And it's there because it has to be and because it's beautiful and because, believe it or not, you wanted it and you've been waiting for it. These girls don't have to wait anymore. Now they can move on together. If you're smart, you'll have figured out that that's a big deal for both of them.


	5. Chapter 5

** A /N: I'm sorry this chapter has been such a long time coming, I've got all sorts of horrible exam prep to do! ****A** lso, I'd very much appreciate it if you didn't kill me for adding an OC! Danielle's gonna be around for a while, folks, but she's really nice- I promise!

******A** s well as this, a lovely friend of mine has drawn up a picture of the two girls, uniforms and all. Do take a look! 

**Do have a look at it - juicy lucy 93. livejournal. com/586. html (take out those spaces, obvs.)**

It had been two weeks since the incident in the choir room and Karla was sure it had been the best time of her life. For the first time she had been able to hold hands in the corridor with someone, sit close to someone in the common room and laugh at inside jokes which nobody understood. That wasn't even the best part though. The best part was that people were staring at her and whispering about her and judging her harshly and _she didn't even care._After spending her whole life worrying about what other people thought, Karla found herself able to laugh it off, forget about it. She didn't need anyone's approval other than Blair's, because hers was the only one that mattered. And that girl had no problem making her opinions known. Karla woke up to several texts every morning, had notes slipped into her locker and sometimes Blair would just _stare_ at her with this look in her eye that made Karla melt just a little bit, like she was the first thing that Blair had ever seen or something. Or at least the only thing _worth_seeing.

Now, Karla wouldn't be the first person to come up with the idea that all things tend towards chaos, but she was perhaps the person who thought about it the most in the modern world because that was just the sort of person she was. Of course, it seemed typical to her that something was going to come in and ruin her fun and, happy as she was, she could tell that she was fragile. Then _she_ turned up. Karla didn't want to be a jealous bitch, it wasn't her place at all and not two weeks ago she had the lowest self esteem of anyone in the Ohio state, but Blair was just different to the other things that she'd had in her life, she was the first thing to ever feel right for her. It wasn't her fault, Karla thought, that this obnoxious blonde girl suddenly seemed to be in her _way_ all the time. Blair was with Danielle on the lacrosse team, Karla hears. They both liked star trek and they both followed soccer on TV. They had considerably more to talk about than Karla thought she and Blair ever would and this was just not fair. Within a week, Karla had gone from insanely insecure to overpoweringly happy to a complete and utter jealous monster in the space of a week. And that's how Karla ended up sitting in the coffee shop by the window, staring out of the window and only looking at the other girls to shoot a positively poisonous look at Danielle who remained completely unfazed. Karla tried to be angry at Blair, she really did but there was just no way that she could look into those brown eyes and not trust her. So, Karla concluded, this was all the fault of little miss obnoxious blonde bitch. This happened every time they went anywhere now, and the blonde girl would just hang all over Blair like some kind of desperate puppy. How. Freaking. Sickening.

Blair wasn't really listening to anything Danielle was saying. It wasn't that she wasn't interested but she had other stuff on her mind. The fact is, Blair was kind of obsessed with Karla Hummel. When she wasn't talking to her she stared at her and when she wasn't staring at her she was just _thinking_about her. However much she tried to convince herself otherwise, she'd noticed that Karla had been less happy in the last few days and it was sending Blair into a state of despair. She wanted the happy, charming girl that she had found back, not this quiet and irritable version. She took the girl's hand on the way home, and wanted to cry when Karla sort of flinched and refused to return the affection.

"Erm… K?" She didn't want to make the other girl angry, but Blair _really_ wanted to know what was wrong and if she could do anything about it and whether it was her fault and… Well she just had to know.

Karla glanced at her and looked away. "What?"

Blair stopped them and took both Karla's soft hands in her own and stared at her, not caring that she had halted in the middle of the street and that they were probably getting looks. "Something's wrong," she said in earnest. "How about you tell me what it is?" She spoke slowly, carefully and looked into the other girl's eyes trying to gage some sort of reaction.

"Nothing's wrong," Karla stared at the floor. "Why, do you think something would be wrong?"

Everything went sort of hazy and Blair tried to answer the question, but the thinking was proving difficult. "Did I do something? Just tell me what it was, I can deal with it. I'll fix it." She pushed a bit of hair out of Karla's face.

Karla wanted to tell her, she really did. She was still angry and she still wanted rid of that girl and she still had that totally and utterly neglected feeling deep down but Blair was looking at her like _that_ again. There was no way anyone could accuse her of anything when she had that look in her eye. She shook her head. "No. No you haven't done anything, there's nothing to fix, I promise." She forced a smile, let go of the other girl's hands and walked slightly in front of her so she didn't have to keep smiling because, honestly, she wasn't sure she could.

"Karla!" a load of blonde suddenly invaded Karla's personal space and she rolled her eyes. Just because she had become totally _way_ too close with Blair did not mean that Karla automatically wanted to be friends with this stupid bimbo of a girl who was trying to steal away the only thing she actually loved in her life. She totally did not just say that, ignore it all.

"Danielle." She gave her best smile and shifted a little so the other girl could come and sit next to her.

"You okay?" Danielle looked concerned. "You seem… Really off lately. Are things okay with Blair and stuff? You guys are like… Together-ish, right?"

Danielle continued to ramble like some sort of incoherent toddler and Karla was positively fuming. I mean did she think was a joke? Of course she wasn't okay! How could this bitch think it was okay to hang all over her girl? Okay so Blair wasn't like technically 100% _her_ girl but still! Not okay. So not okay. Then Karla Hummel snapped.

"No actually, I'm not okay. I'd really rather that you wouldn't hang yourself all over her, especially while I'm around. I care about her, alright? I don't have anything else and you have all your friends and stuff and I just… I have _nothing_. She's the only thing that I can count on. Well, I thought so until you came along and…" Karla had to stop before she started crying or lashing out or something.

"Wait, what?" Danielle looked confused and… Somewhat amused. "Karla you _do_know I have a boyfriend, right?"

A wave of shame and relief hit Karla all at once and her cheeks flushed pink. She played with some bracelets she had on and concentrated on the knots in the table wood.

"You… You do?"

Danielle gave a flashy smile and looked at Karla with kindness in her eyes, that was when Karla realised that she wasn't actually an obnoxious bitch at all. Oops.

"Yes!" The blonde girl giggled a bit. "He goes to Dalton. I guess I'm just a little over affectionate sometimes but, I swear, that's just how I am! I didn't mean to… Threaten you or anything. I'll back off, okay?"

"No!" Karla's voice had turned into a high pitched squeak and she kinda wished the floor would just swallow her up and she could hide in a hole forever. "It's fine, you're fine I just… I didn't know about." She shook her head and smiled shyly. "Forgive my idiocy?"

Danielle smiled at her. "Of course, it's not your fault."

Blair didn't know what had brought her old Karla back, but she definitely liked it this way. She'd found the other girl lying on her bed when she got back from the library and soft music was playing through her speakers.

"Hi!" Karla's arms were around her neck before she had time to speak but she laughed and returned the hug gracefully.

"You're certainly in a good mood," Blair said she dragged the girl over to sit back on the bed.

"I very certainly am!" Karla said and cuddled up close with a grin on her face. Blair gave her _that_ look again and smiled back, running a hand through Karla's side bangs.

"I'm glad," she said quietly. She leaned into kiss the girl in her arms and she felt warm and fuzzy inside.

Blair was in a pretty good mood too after that.


	6. Chapter 6

Contrary to every belief she had ever had about herself, Karla actually seemed to be fitting in okay. She still thought every bit of laughter she ever heard was directed at her and she was still paranoid about people looking at her- she was pretty sure people still stared at her a lot- but she was beginning to smile back at people who were nice to her, and she had found that making friends was easier than she had assumed it to be. She remembered clearly the first time Karla had tried to make a friend. She'd been 4 years old and had waddled over to a dark haired boy playing in the sand. She introduced herself and listed her motives (they involved sandcastles and bracelets) and he had promptly run away from her, not looking back.

She knew it was stupid, but whenever someone approached her, Karla couldn't help but think of it. It was the rejection. That heavy, stinging feeling that rejection gave her every single time. It was difficult not to want to avoid it at all costs. Blair had been the exception, of course. Well, everything about Blair was kind of an exception. She was smart _and_ gorgeous _and _nice and… well, perfect.

There was a coffee shop round a few minutes walk away from Crawford. It was small but homey with dim light and piano music, full of private school kids and squishy sofas, and Karla felt safe there. She entered on a chilly Saturday afternoon and grabbed herself a latte. Danielle was sitting on one of the sofa's with a good looking Asian boy and Karla happily sat next to her, still trying to make up for being a jealous bitch. It turned out, of course, that Danielle was really, really nice, Karla supposed that life was trying to get back at her by making the blonde as kind and generous as possible. Danielle turned her back on the boy and enveloped Karla in a hug.

"Hey, girl!" She grinned in her own contagious way as she released Karla and took the boy's hand up in her own. "This is Wes."

The boy waved with his free hand and said something extremely well mannered and gentlemanly, right, Danielle's boyfriend went to _Dalton_: school of the elite. The other two began nattering again and Karla learned that Wes was in the Dalton show choir and that he was a senior and that Danielle had travelled there from Baltimore because her parents drove her insane. It was strange; a lot of people at the two schools seemed to have issues with their parents- this was why they opted to be away from them.

Karla's parents were indifferent to her simply because they knew nothing about her, nor did they have any desire to. She wasn't escaping from them as such, she was escaping from everything, but she'd noticed that without her parents around to judge her being herself and become something rather more tolerable than it used to be. Sometimes when Blair was with her, she found the idea almost appealing. Karla spend the next hour nursing a hot latte and listening to the chatter of her companions. It should have been boring, but it was so nice to be in a companionable atmosphere for once, one where she felt wanted, that she felt a warm feeling in her stomach caused by something other than milky coffee.

As if conjured by Karla and her deep thoughts, Blair sashayed into the shop, ringing the bell on the door extra loudly and landing hard next to Karla on the sofa. She put an arm around Karla's shoulders as if it were a second nature and Karla felt an extremely warm fuzzy feeling in her heart, like velvet and hot chocolate and marshmallowy pillows. Blair was one of those people that were simply confident and so she saw no problem in laying a hand on Karla's bare shoulder and kissing her gently before pulling her close. The other two looked rather intrigued and she merely turned to them and said "Hey."

Wes and Danielle smiled briefly and returned to talking amongst themselves. Blair gave her best smile and looked right into Karla's bright blue green eyes.

"You're going on a date with me tonight."

Karla grinned, this would be the first date she had ever been on.

"Am I now?" She raised her eyebrows questioningly, but couldn't help but smirk "Where?"

"Yep!" Blair spoke with her usual finality and the girls just sort of looked at each other for a while. Some people would consider that unusual, but looking at Blair was simply Karla's favourite thing to do. She had these eyes that got brighter when she was excited, and lips that would smile in a way that could warm you up and those silky curls that made you want to reach out and touch them. Perhaps she was getting slightly carried away with all of this. She didn't answer the second question.

Karla didn't actually know how dates worked, but she'd find out, she hoped. Blair took her hand and led her away from the coffee shop when it started to get dark and began to drag her up a steep hill towards the park.

"Sorry, it's kinda cold," Blair took a hold of the other girl's hand and squeezed. "But look, check this out." They had reached the top of the hill and there was a lop sided bench there that slid to the side so they _had_ to sit squashed together (thank you gravity). "I know it's not really a date, but I can be all cheesy and show off my knowledge of the constellations if we're up here so…"

"It's perfect." Karla rested her head on the other girl's shoulder, even though she was the taller one it was her favourite way to be. She felt safe. Recognising this kind of safety wasn't something Karla found easy, she'd been scared for too long. Ever since she was old enough to understand the world, to understand that there were things to be scared of. She had been the little girl that lay awake and stared at the closet door, waiting for things to burst out of it and get her. She'd been the girl too scared to look under her bed, too scared to check out what that noise was in the dark. Then when she grew up there were different things that scared her, glares and whispers that would give her the same shivers as the monster in the closet. But she never had to feel that with Blair. Never. They would just sit there together and Blair would hold her hand and she'd forget what she was scared of in the first place. But whatever it was, she would think, they would get through it together.

And Blair started nattering after that, staying true to her word "And that's the Corona Austina, it looks a crown, see? Oh and that's Sagittarius, but it's kind hard to make out this time of year and-" she noticed the amusement in the other girl's eyes. "What?"

Karla giggled. "Nothing, it's just… You really do no all the constellations." Blair feigned outrage "You, my girl, seriously underestimate me."

Blair kissed her head and whispered into her hair "I'm so glad I met you," and she placed a finger under the other girl's chin and kissed her, gently but surely. The next few minutes after that were lost, but not forgotten.


End file.
